BUTTERCUP FAMILY 99 



Flowers in dense racemes; stout plants with tapering roots. 

 Leaves perfectly glabrous; moist places. 



Stems 3 to 6 ft. high; leaves 3 to 5 in. wide 1. D. glaucum. 



Stems 1 to 2 l / 2 ft. high; leaves smaller 2. D. andersonii. 



Leaves very pubescent, especially the petioles; dry 



places 3.1?. hansenii. 



Flowers in very loose racemes; slender plants with round- 

 ish tuber-like roots, except no. 6. 

 Flowers blue. 



Leaf-lobes oblong or obovate, obtuse 4. D. decorum. 



Leaf-lobes linear, acute 5. D. pauciAorum. 



Flowers red 6. D. nudicaule. 



1. D. glaucum Wats. Tall Mountain Larkspur. Leaves 

 glabrous, of orbicular outline, 3 to 5 in. wide, 5 to 7-parted 

 into narrowly cleft divisions. Flowers blue, the close raceme 

 6 to 18 in. long; pedicels mostly Y\ in. long (the lowest V/* 

 in.). Sepals and spur each about x / 2 in. long. Pods J4 in. 

 long, not diverging. 



The very robust, leafy stem, 3 to 6 ft. high, from a cluster 

 of thickish but not tuber-like roots readily distinguishes this, 

 the largest of all our larkspurs. It inhabits stream banks and 

 wet meadows but is by no means common. 



2. D. andersonii Gray. Similar to D. glaucum but smaller : 

 stems rarely 3 ft. high; leaves 3 in. or less wide, cut into 

 broad obtuse lobes; spur y 2 to % ln - long* much longer than 

 the sepals. — Immature plants from Table Lake, north of the 

 Tuolumne River, seem to be this. 



3. D. hansenii Greene. Leaves pubescent, cleft into oblong 

 or linear segments. Flowers pink or white, in a dense raceme, 

 the pedicels mostly % in. long. Sepals about % in. long, 

 exceeded by the spur (spur strongly curved in var. arcuatum 

 Greene). Pods erect. 



The stout, inconspicuously leafy stems of this species, end- 

 ing in racemes of pale, pinkish flowers, are common sights 

 in fairly dry situations of moderate altitudes, as from the 

 Hetch Hetchy to Yosemite and Wawona. It grows l J / 2 to 3 

 ft. high, from a cluster of thick, tapering roots. 



4. D. decorum var. patens Gray. Leaves obscurely pubes- 

 cent, 1 to 3 in. wide; the lower deeply 3 to 6-lobed; divisions 

 obovate or oblong, obtuse, entire or slightly lobed; upper 

 leaves with narrow segments. Flowers blue, the raceme 3 to 

 8 in. long. Sepals about */> in. long, equalled by the thick 

 spur. Pods diverging from below the middle. 



This common larkspur, with slender stems (^ to 2j^ ft. 

 high) from a cluster of tuber-like roots, few leaves, and a 

 loose cluster of deep-blue flowers, occurs almost throughout 



